Rope tightener



W. L. WITTE.

ROPE TIGHTENER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24, 192i.

7 ,422,804, Patented July 1111 11922.

Wil'iier 1;. mime. W I INVENTOR ATTORNEY wrmsss: I

ROPE TIGHTENER.

Application filed October 24, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VALTER L. Vrrrn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Escondido, in the county of San Diego and State of California, have invented new and useful Impfovements in Rope Tighteners, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to rope clamps or tighteners and has for its object the provision of a tightener of novel construction designed particularly for use in connection with tent ropes or guy ropes of any kind and for any purpose, the construction being such as to obviate the necessity which exists of tying and untying the rope when the same is passed about a support and is to be joined.

More specifically my invention contem plates the provision of a single integral metallic member having one end formed with an eye permanently secured to an end of a rope and having its other end formed as a substantially rectangular frame which is formed with registering holes into which lead slots through which the rope may be passed for engaging within the holes so that the tightening action may be accomplished without it being necessary to thread the rope through holes or to tie or untie any portion of the rope.

An additional object is the provision of a device of this character which will be very simple and inexpensive in manufacture, easy to use, positive in its holding action, durable in service and a general improvement in the art.

I With the above and other objects and advantages in view, the invention consists in the details of construction to be hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a view showing a rope engaged about a support and equipped with my tightener, and

Figure 2 is a detail perspective view of my device alone.

Referring more particularly to the drawings the letter A designates a tent stake or peg and B designates a rope which may be one of the ropes attached to a tent on which may be any other guy rope, it being additionally understood that the tent peg or stake is specified merely for illustrative purposes as any other support might be equally as well employed. In carrying out my in- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patentedduly Eli, 1922.

Serial no. 509,947.

vention I provide a single integral body which may be formed a casting or which may be formed of sheet metal of strip-like formation. This device includes an clongated shank 10 which has one end slightly enlarged as shown at 11 and formed with a hole 12 through which is intended to be passed one end of the rope B, this end being subsequently knotted as shown at C. My device further includes a substantially rectangular frame portion 13 which is formed in opposite sides with holes 14 into which lead slots 15 extending from one edge of the frame.

In the use of the device the rope B should be secured and having my device attached to one end thereof, is engaged about the support A, after which the rope is passed through the slots 15 and engaged within the holes 14:. In order to tighten the rope it is merely necessary that the operator grasp my device and pull it away from the support A which will of course tend to tighten the rope in a very obvious manner. \Vhen manual pressure upon my device is released the pulling tendency of the rope will cause my device to swing into angular relation to the two stretches of the rope so that a very eflicient binding action will be produced which will operate to prevent slipping. It is to be observed that the rope need not be threaded through any holes but is merely squeezed through the slots so as to be engaged within the holes. When the use of my device is no longer desired it is of course seen that it may be disengaged from the rope in a very easy manner simply by moving it laterally with respect to the length of the rope upon which it is engaged.

From the foregoing description and a study of the drawings it will be apparent that I have thus provided a very simple and easily applied rope tightener which is capable of use for a wide variety of purposes in tightening flexible members such as ropes, cables and the like which are used for any purpose. Owing to the nature of the structure it is apparent that there are no moving parts and consequently nothing to get out of order so that the device could naturally have an extremely long life.

Vhile I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of the invention it is of course to be understood that I reserve the right to make such changes in the form,

construction and arrangement of parts as will not depart from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claim.

Having described the invention What I claim is substantially rectangular open frame and.

having its end portions brought together to 10 define. an elongated shank, the free end of theshank being formed With a hole and the frame portion being formed in opposite sides with holes and with constricted slots leading into said holes and extending to one 15 edge of the frame.

WALTER L. WITTE. 

